Adieu,
VenueIs
it the Larkin Restaurant and Lounge—or just the Larkin Restaurant?

By
Kathryn Lurie

Shock
waves rippled through the Albany music scene as people checked
their e-mail boxes last Sunday and Monday mornings. The news
was confusing and upsetting: On Saturday night, post-show
and with absolutely no notice, the new manager of Center Square’s
Larkin Restaurant and Lounge, Dave Serrao, pulled Larkin booking
manager Dan Goodspeed aside and informed him that not only
was Goodspeed fired, but all shows booked at the Larkin were
canceled. So Goodspeed, and the acts he had booked—which amounted
to more than 100—were suddenly displaced. No details were
given, and Goodspeed (who is also the brains behind local-music
resource BUMlocal.com) was forced to shoot an e-mail out to
the masses on the BUMlocal e-mail list, stating briefly that
he knows no more than what he was told, and that his exchange
with Serrao marked his very first encounter with the new manager.

“My
first conversation with Dave was the one where he told me
he was getting rid of the music there,” Goodspeed says. “It
really was a total surprise. It’s been my opinion, and still
is, that the music is what brought people to the Larkin regularly,
it’s what the Larkin built its name and reputation on, and
it won’t easily recover from its removal.”

The Times Union reported on Tuesday (May 4) that Serrao,
who has been in charge at the Larkin for about three weeks,
said, “The focus was not on the restaurant, where it should
have been. The focus was on the music; that should be secondary.”
Serrao was also quoted as saying that the music was “getting
a little stale,” which did not sit well with many musicians
and patrons.

“Stale?”
asks local musician Bryan Thomas. “I hope he wasn’t referring
to the quality of the performers. I did a show with Katie
Haverly at the Larkin in early April. If you can sit through
her set and call it stale, you don’t have a soul.”

Goodspeed adds, “I’m not sure what [Serrao] based his decision
on. I don’t remember him attending any Larkin shows.”

The new manager’s attitude toward the music is surprising
to many, since the room is tremendously popular among local
and touring musicians and patrons alike. The music aspect
of the restaurant has garnered several awards, as well—in
the 2003 Best Of issue of Metroland, the Larkin won
awards for Best Open Mic, Best Piano Bar, and Best Music Venue
(Red Wine); in the 2001 Best Of issue, when local jazz maven
Adrian Cohen was booking the lounge and managing the restaurant,
it won Best Booked Venue.

Asked what he thought of the current changes taking place
at the restaurant, Cohen says, “Although the venue’s booking
approach in the past two years didn’t exactly cater to the
potential of the business as a whole, I’m certain that with
some serious discussion that could have been altered to better
suit the new management’s ideas.” He went on to say, “You
know, the room was working very well at a certain point as
a music venue and as a banquet room, so I just don’t see the
conflict there,” referencing the TU’s report that Serrao
wanted to examine why the upstairs room was not regularly
being used as a banquet room instead of a music room.

“If,
as a manager, Mr. Serrao needs to focus more on the resturant
end of the business, then respectfully, he should do that,”
points out Michael Campion, musician and Larkin regular, “but
not while alienating the entire community of anyone who has
been on tour, seen or played a show at the Larkin.”

Although the scant and sometimes conflicting information has
left some with the impression that the upstairs lounge has
closed for good (Goodspeed’s e-mail stated it was closing
“indefinitely”), Serrao says that at some point in the future,
music will once again be welcome, but he needs to acquire
the necessary permits for live music before it can be allowed.
When asked if he had any idea when that would be, he refused
to give any more details.

As for the extremely popular Thursday night open mic run by
Goodspeed and local folk legend Paddy Kilrain, the kids are
going to have to drive a bit farther for the weekly teeth-cutting
ritual: As of next Thursday (May 16), the open mic will take
place at the Van Dyck in Schenectady. It is still unclear
when and if Nate Buccieri will resume his thriving Wednesday
night piano bar, although he is planning on returning to the
Larkin when music is reinstated.

In the meantime, the public can expect a complete overhaul
of the Larkin as they know it—there will be an almost entirely
new staff except for the chef, Serigne Sow, who seems to have
the patience of a god. And for now, sadly, music is kaput.

“Whatever
changes they do make,” Cohen says, “I very much hope they
maintain their focus on the Larkin as a neighborhood place
that is welcoming and inclusive to all types of people.”

Kathryn
Lurie is a former employee of the Larkin Restaurant and Lounge.

We
Lost Two Lark Street Music Venues in a Week?

Sad,
but true: Bombers Sunday night Unstuffed
Acoustic Music Series has been extinguished, also,
as of last Wednesday (April 28). Local musician
Brian Bassett, who was booking the series, was
required to cancel all future showshowever,
this time it was not because the owner shut the
music down. Owner Matt Baumgartner was denied
the zoning permit required to allow live music
in the upstairs bar. Although the semi-new music
series was strictly acoustic and only occurred
one night a week, neighborhood residents voiced
concerns at the zoning board meeting that the
music would create an undesirable scene with undesirable
noise. Baumgartner was not shy in expressing his
frustration: Its an embarrassment
to live in a city that limits the arts,
he says. So, as they say, another one bites the
dust.